23 comments:

Obviously, what Rice is objecting to is the comparison of Bush with Mugabe (which may or may not have happened, the essay is unclear). The "same sentence" construction is just a common phrasing used to convey the idea.

What say we call it an idiom? And since, as William Safire says, idioms are always correct, we can just move on.

Contrasting two word images side by side, so to speak, can also be seen as a Mind Control suggestion and not just a cute idiom or speech pattern. I Never underesimate the power of a language to implant usable image tools into the subconscious of Controlees for later use. What image du jour will The New York Times enchant us with today?

Dr Rice But I'm going to tell you, when you're facing, every day, anthrax attacks, and when you're facing, every day, a threat matrix as thick as your phone book about what the next attack might be, if you have a legal way to get information to prevent those attacks, you have an obligation to do it.

National Palestino Radio Are you — but are you worried about you, personally, though? Because there were all these reports that you were involved in pretty thorough discussions about techniques to get information out.

Dr Rice I was national security adviser, and, quite clearly, you would expect the policies of the United States to come through the National Security Council. But I absolutely was — believed and was told and continued to believe that we were doing so under our treaty obligations and under our domestic laws. And in those circumstances, I really do think that the president of the United States and those responsible, in positions of responsibility, have an obligation to try and protect the American people.

National Palestino Radio A lot of this — Guantanamo, all these issues — you start hearing from people, bad actors in the world, people like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, he brings up these issues at the United Nations General Assembly floor. And I wonder if you think some of this made it more difficult for you as the secretary of state to talk about human rights.

Dr Rice No, of course not. Robert Mugabe — to mention Robert Mugabe in the same sentence with the president of the United States is an outrage.

It is. To be lectured by Mugabe about Guantanamo and WOT tactics is an outrage.

The Most Powerful Man in the World studied the front cover. Geldof in Africa — " 'The international best seller.' You write that bit yourself?"

"That's right. It's called marketing. Something you obviously have no clue about or else I wouldn't have to be here telling people your Africa story."

It is some story. And I have always wondered why it was never told properly to the American people, who were paying for it. It was, for example, Bush who initiated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with cross-party support led by Senators John Kerry and Bill Frist. In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs — and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free of charge. The U.S. also contributes one-third of the money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — which treats another 1.5 million. It contributes 50% of all food aid (though some critics find the mechanism of contribution controversial). On a seven-day trip through Africa, Bush announced a fantastic new $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated; a program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanian kids; and contracts worth around $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account, another initiative of the Bush Administration.